


Teen Wolf, Season 2, Episode 9, Party Guessed

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s02e09 Party Guessed, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 02, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 10:06:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16195343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for both the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	Teen Wolf, Season 2, Episode 9, Party Guessed

Open Peter mentally torturing Lydia some more. He demands she fulfil his plan on her birthday.

Over at the Argent house, trying to clean Victoria’s wounds, Chris is also trying hard not to freak-out.

He and Allison are the only ones who can bring out in the best her. Everything she does has a firmness to it, but here, she’s kind in taking over. She isn’t impatient, she doesn’t condemn him, and sadly, unlike with her daughter, she understands him. It might be, because, she tries in his case. In Allison’s case, even when she wants to be empathetic, she won’t let herself put herself in Allison’s position.

As she cleans, Chris and Gerard talk about her bite. He tries everything to sway Gerard’s mind.

“Your wife is already dead. That thing over there is just a cocoon waiting to hatch.”

One of the great things about Boune in this role is: Chris is often a hard man. There’s always some confliction and pain lurking behind the hardness, but he is a killer, he isn’t above torture, and he will exercise his power and privilege over those deemed lower than him.

Right now, he’s practically a boy begging his father. When he lets go of the hardness, it shows he could have a good man. He’s not a leader, but he could have been a good protector.

All the things he does in the first few seasons, most of them aren’t good. They are his choice, but there’s a tragedy in that, for a long time, the choices he makes as an adult were what he was taught he must make when he was still a boy.

In the train station, Derek and Scott are talking about how it’s proving impossible to both save and/or kill Jackson. Knowing what’s coming soon, it’s painful to see Derek being truly open with Scott here. This is what the other three betas, the ones who are truly loyal, the ones who genuinely care for him, deserve.

Here, he finally acknowledges out loud him biting Jackson did play a part in all this happening. If not for what Scott will soon do, I’d give him credit for pointing out Jackson’s own issues also contributed.

Derek didn’t know his bite could do this. If he hadn’t bitten Jackson, it might never have happened, but the world is filled with so much cause-and-effect that intentions often have to matter. A person doing an innocent thing has the potential to contribute to a stranger being murdered, and if everyone who unknowingly, inadvertently caused harm just by doing a simple, non-hurtful in nature action was blamed, the world would soon be barren of people.

Biting lost teenage souls was questionable. Even later on in the series, he acknowledges he did it more for him than them. The fact he might have hoped Jackson would die is terrible.

Yet, the fact he genuinely had no idea this could happen means a lot.

Elsewhere, Allison has driven Matt home. I guess they met up again after the rave? Last episode, Gerard took her home, or he was going to, at least. Did she remember Matt and tell him she’ll come home later? Did Chris call Gerard and tell him to absolutely don’t bring Allison home? Did he take her home, and then, he or Chris sent her back out so that she wouldn’t accidentally see or hear something regarding Victoria?

Acknowledging it wasn’t a good move on his part, he brings up the kiss, and she tells him not to worry about it. He brings up her and Scott. She doesn’t know how to answer, and making her laugh and squeezing her hand, he gets out of the car.

I don’t know if I’ve seen him anywhere else, but Stephen Ford does great on Teen Wolf. Before this episode and even here before things start being revealed, there are some scenes that hint at Matt’s darkness, but most of the time, Matt comes across as a nice, normal guy. He can be a little awkward, and I wouldn’t ship him with Allison, but basically, he comes across as a muggle with a crush. Him having pictures of Allison at the lacrosse game earlier this season didn’t set off any bells, because, they were taken in a public setting. People taking pictures and recording at sports game isn’t uncommon.

Now, he left his camera behind, and Allison finds even more pictures her. These, however, are creepy. Some of them are in public, and though it’s not great he took them without her knowledge or consent, it doesn’t cross any lines. However, some of them are of her at her house through windows. I’m not sure of the legality of this, but it definitely crosses moral lines.

Matt reappears to retrieve his camera, and giving the camera back, thankfully, Allison manages to get away without having to physically defend herself.

Ford and Reed do great at selling the tension and ugliness of the scene.

Later, in the train station, Derek is digging out the chains he plans to use on the betas. Boyd’s book-smarts are shown when he recognises the Triskelion symbol. Derek explains what it means to him: Alpha, beta, and omega. A beta and omega can both rise up, and an alpha and beta can both fall down.

Also, did the stripes meaning possession or corrupting influence come into play in later seasons? Did I misread something? Was this piece of meta simply wrong?

Boyd is wearing stripes here, and extras are sometimes shown wearing stripes, too. I’m not sure what exactly could be possessing or corruptly influencing Boyd here.

Isaac questions Scott’s true loyalty, and for God’s sake, Derek, listen.

Derek explains they’re going to want to kill everything they see, and Erica expresses it’s good she had her period last week, then.

I’m not sure what Sinqua Walls was going for here, but I choose to interpret Boyd’s silent reaction as, ‘Okay, this girl is awesome.’

Derek himself is amused, and also, she’s going to be wearing a torture device on her head. It’s not punishment. It’s acknowledgement she might be genuinely be the most dangerous of them when the full moon hits.

Over at Allison’s, Lydia has appeared with outfits, and some of them are striped. Allison brings up the lack of invitations, and Lydia insists everyone knows it’s her party, and thus, everyone will come.

Allison tries to broach the subject of everything being different this year, and when she brings up Jackson, there’s a well done moment of tension. Allison went with the formal, the one Lydia was attacked near, with Jackson in part to hurt Lydia for kissing Scott. Partly wanting to reconnect with her friend and partly trying to figure out how to handle the supernatural, Allison doesn’t want to bring up the time in their lives when they both did regretful things over boys.

Recognising Lydia would rather just have a normal girl session than talk about what Allison herself has continually been ducking out of talking about, Allison respects this.

Victoria comes in, and Allison is somewhat rude in sending her away.

I try hard to always be sympathetic and non-condemning of suicidal people. Suicide is often a tragedy. Blaming people who took their own lives, and condemning those who struggle with such thoughts is cruel. It does nothing to help anyone.

Whatever made her go after Scott, it’s been made clear, in general, Victoria does respect the mandate that werewolves shouldn’t be killed unless there’s proof they’ve taken human life. Whether she agrees with it or not, she respects it.

Assuming she actually dies in this episode, she believes she’s better off dead than a werewolf. Now, I can’t understand this, but-

I’ve never been suicidal over my sexuality, and no one has ever discriminated against me so badly over anything that I’ve felt suicide might be my only option. I’ve never been clinically depressed, and though I am often an anxious person, I don’t think my anxiety reaches diagnosis-level. I don’t have any personality or mood disorders, and nothing life-changingly traumatic has happened in my past. I’ve never struggled with addiction.

Yet, I can somewhat empathise and potentially share a limited understanding with people who are suicidal due to such struggles. If a character who was does what Victoria does here, I’d feel terrible for them.

Here, though, I’m more annoyed than anything. Victoria could have done several things to get Allison to talk privately with her, and instead, she accepts this.

Over at the S household, Sheriff S realises Stiles is still sleuthing on his own. It’s established this is spring break. Sheriff S says Harris was brought in on suspicion of the murders. His tire tracks were found near the scene of three murders, and Stiles is going to need to give a statement about seeing Harris’s car at the rave.

There’s an interesting line where Stiles says, “I don’t hate him. He hates me.”

Sheriff S tries to convince Stiles to stop getting involved, and Stiles insists he has to do something.

Then, they realise all the victims were on Coach Lahey’s swim team.

Either this next scene didn’t happen or the one above didn’t, because, in school, despite it supposedly being spring break, Lydia asks Jackson to come to her party, and he doesn’t think this is a good idea. Even after he physically grabs her, she still insists, “I’ll see you there.”

Next, it’s night. Allison approaches Lydia’s big house. There’s no cars or other signs of people.

I’m not sure what she’s steeling herself for or against, but she does with, “For Lydia.” Aw.

Some cheering people run past her.

Inside, Lydia answers the door to Stiles holding a huge present. O’Brien can hold it, because, I imagine it’s either empty or CGI. Stiles being something allows him to easily hold it despite how heavy it must be.

Once he finally gets the present inside (the easier answer would have been to turn it to its side), he and Scott talk. Scott isn’t up for including Allison, and Stiles is. Stiles also points out they know water has something to do with what’s going on due to it being the swim team being killed and K-Jackson’s aversion to water.

The trio meets up, and both Allison and Stiles want to do something about the empty party for Lydia’s sake. Scott doesn’t care, and he brings up her ignoring Stiles for years.

Stiles does good here. He recognises the fact Lydia was under no obligation to acknowledge him.

With them both insisting on trying to be kind to the struggling girl, he agrees to help by using his status as co-captain to get the lacrosse team to come. Stiles also has some people he can call.

Cue the drag queens he met a few episodes back arriving, and though surprised and insisting no one touch anything, Lydia is a good hostess who welcomes them to enjoy themselves.

In the train station, Isaac is holding Erica when Derek applies the torture headgear.

Physically, Boyd might have been the better choice to hold her, but emotionally, he couldn’t handle it. Isaac can.

Erica understands people inflicting pain is sometimes truly necessary; when she was sick, she was forced to endure shots, invasive tests, and medications that made her feel almost as bad as the epilepsy itself did. It was different from the bullying she received.

Isaac, however, is simply an abuse victim. He loves his father, and part of him believes, or at least, wants to believe his father loved him regardless of the things his father did.

Holding a kid down for a shot isn’t abuse, though, hopefully attempts at distraction and the like were employed first. I personally view spanking children as abusive, but a parent swatting their child’s bottom isn’t automatically an abusive parent. One abusive act doesn’t always make a person themselves an abusive person.

To Isaac, people who love him are going to hurt him, and he might have a limit, but that limit is high. Here, Derek is doing this to keep Erica from hurting others, and if she resisted, Isaac might have refused to hold her, but she doesn’t flinch, try to move away, or say no when he slips his arms underneath hers and raises his up.

Therefore, it doesn’t particularly matter why Derek is doing this. An authority figure he loves hurting him and another person is nothing new. It’s not clear if Coach Lahey abused Camden, too, but it’s possibility. Either way, Erica is on his level, not the authority figure’s.

At the party, Lydia hands Allison a drink.

Across the room, Stiles makes it clear Scott should apologise to Allison, and yes, he should, but the gender stereotyping of boys should apologise to girls no matter who is actually wrong that Stiles engages in is wrong.

Girls/women are not unreasonable creatures who are entitled to always be appeased when something goes wrong, and boys/men are not helpless creatures who should suck it up and debase themselves so that they can continue receiving attention/sex/etc.

Scott didn’t communicate properly with his girlfriend, and then, he blew up at her when she tried to handle a situation the way she thought was best on her own due to his lack of communication. This doesn’t make him a horrible person, but it does make him wrong. If he wants a chance at fixing their relationship, then, yes, he should acknowledge what he did to her and apologise for it. If he doesn’t view the relationship as worth saving, then, an apology would still be the decent thing to do, but no, there isn’t and shouldn’t be any requirement for one.

They see Jackson has arrived, and handing him a punch, Lydia simply says, “Glad you could make it.”

When she pours more punch, the petals of purple flowers she kept hallucinating are shown to be in the bowl.

In the station, Boyd and Erica are going feral, and Isaac asks how to control the feelings. Derek tells him to find an anchor, something meaningful, to bind him to his human side and keep the human side in control. When Isaac asks what it is for him, he hesitates before answering: Anger.

“But it doesn’t have to be that for everybody.”

At the Argent house, Chris presents Victoria with medicine, and at her irritation over the assumption she’d choose such a female way of killing herself, Chris starts to tell her about the accurate gender statistics for suicides.

Annoyed and filled with righteous internalised misogyny, she grabs a large knife.

“But you’re not most women,” he agrees.

Ugh.

She goes upstairs, and Gerard makes it clear Chris can’t hesitate in helping his wife kill herself due to Allison. He and Chris will help her learn to keep standing when the ground shifts beneath her. He also makes it clear, if Victoria can’t kill herself, they’ll need to kill her.

At the party, good job with the extras and background events. There’s a black boy and white girl dancing together, two boys are kissing one another, and some girls are dancing together.

Lydia gives stripe-wearing Matt some punch, but when he sees Allison, he throws the punch away.

There’s a shot of Jackson and Scott staring at one another.

Lydia puts a drink in Scott’s hand, and he says he’s not drinking tonight. She makes it clear she doesn’t care what his deal with Allison is, he’s going to drink at her party and have a good time.

He takes a drink.

Upstairs, Matt and Allison talk privately, and he tries to defend his creepiness. She isn’t having it, and when he gets physical, she uses her self-defence training against him.

Then, she apologises before leaving.

Allison, you did nothing wrong. In the future, try not to apologise to any entitled boys you put on the floor or to any people who witness you doing so.

Noticing a hooded figure carrying a crossbow, she calls for Scott, and then, cold, ruthless her shoots herself. She lays into herself for always calling for help.

I’ve never liked the quote of, ‘Kill the boy/girl so that the man/woman can be born.’

At a certain point, people need to mature. They need to stop counting on someone else to always take care of them. They need to accept the world isn’t as good and safe as they might have believed when they were younger and more protected.

However, to me that quote seems to be saying they need to stop completely holding onto everything they held onto as a child. Maturity doesn’t need to mean hardness, cynicism, and a lack of wonder, optimism, and complete lack of accepting help from others. No matter how self-sufficient, people need others. A person can be realistic and suitably wary when necessary without losing their hope for better and belief they can help bring about that better. A person can strive to see the best in people without blindly trusting everyone they come across.

Children grow. They don’t die. Eventually, they transform. A man or woman isn’t born. They rise, and they can do so without death.

Meanwhile, Stiles has a hallucination of his drunken dad wearing black. Sheriff S lays into him for killing Claudia and forcing him to deal with a hyperactive little bastard on his own.

O’Brien is so wonderful during this scene.

The hallucination breaks when Sheriff S throws the bottle of alcohol at him.

Over at the Argent’s, Victoria has decided to kill herself on Allison’s bed. I will not comment.

Back at the party, Scott has a hallucination of Allison making out with K-Jackson.

Really? Allison struggles with internalised misogyny and feeling helpless, Stiles believes both his parents might have been happier and, in his mother’s case, still alive if he hadn’t been born, and Scott is most worried about Allison macking on a serial killer?

The person hardest on Allison is herself. I don’t believe Sheriff S does blame and resent Stiles, but his and Allison’s hallucinations make a certain amount sense. She recognises her flaws, and I’m sure Sheriff S has unintentionally done things to strengthen these fears in Stiles.

Yet, even with mind-alerting elements at work, Scott believes Allison would ever willingly get hot and heavy with an almost mindless, inhuman creature who has killed numerous people?

Jackson drinks the punch, and he imagines his faceless biological parents have come to talk to him. There’s a shot of him without a face, too.

I’m not sure what has made Scott realise Lydia might be responsible, but he’s trying to find her.

However, she’s left the house.

Meanwhile, the betas are freaking out, and aw, Boyd has cute elf ears.

There’s a funny bit of Derek calmly asking Scott via voicemail to call him back before hanging up and acknowledging he definitely needs some help. I love the music/beat used when he produces his claws.

Erica gets free, and as he’s trying to deal with her, Isaac jumps out of the train window. Then, Boyd gets free, and he and Erica are happy to use him as a clawing post.

Back at the party, Scott is trying to break Stiles out Stiles’s dissociated state. Another party attendee, Danielle, appears, and she dunks Stiles in the pool water. Heh.

I think it’s cool Shantal Nyree Rhodes was brought back in season 3 after she won a guest appearance on this episode, but it also furthers my irritation about Tara Graeme.

At the station, Derek tries to re-chain Erica, and Boyd tries to escape.

Isaac to the rescue, however. He’s still angry and wild, but he’s not feral.

I like the nod he and Derek share.

Over to the Argents, Victoria tries to prepare Chris for what to tell others, and there’s some shaming of people who are suicidal for reasons other than their family code saying they’re better off dead than being a werewolf.

I wrote way too many paragraphs in response to this.

To keep things simple: Bourne and Mays do great with this scene. I really buy the love and commitment Chris and Victoria feel towards one another.

Victoria’s eyes turn gold before the knife goes in.

I don’t know if there were plans for Victoria to be alive that didn’t come to fruition or not, but from what I read in an interview with Mays, having the eyes change before the knife was in was intentional.

Back to the station, Derek chains a calm, in-control but still shifted Isaac back up. Isaac reveals his anchor is his father.

Instead of just being supportive, Derek points out, “Your father locked you in a freezer in the basement to punish you.”

Boyd, Erica, could you please regain consciousness and claw him some more?

Abuse victims rarely have simple feelings towards their abusers. Whether it’s completely healthy or not, if drawing on memories of his father helps Isaac get through something tough, good on him for getting through something tough.

Oh, and remember Isaac being worried about Derek being alone on the full moon?

Well, after Derek leaves the train, as Lydia with her knockout powder shows, this wasn’t exactly an off-base worry.

At the hospital, Allison utterly freaks out, and all Chris can do is hug her while repeating how sorry he is.

I’ve read Crystal Reed specifically requested this scene, and if so, good for her. I’m glad the others agreed to it. She absolutely nails it, and when it comes to Allison’s later darker actions in the season, this doesn’t make some of them excusable, but it does help make some of them more understandable.

Back at the party, Stiles and Scott have figured out about the punch. People are being thrown into the pool, and despite Matt’s panicked protests, he’s one of them.

Human but possessed Jackson gets Matt out, and Matt yells at everyone for staring.

The cops arrive, everyone runs, and Scott witnesses a glaring Matt with K-Jackson crouching protectively near him. Then, they both just vanish.

At the Hale house, tiny Lydia has either dragged big Derek all the way there without being seen, or she’s tapped into the currents. She’s also made a hole over the floor covering Peter and arranged some mirrors.

I’m not sure how it happens, but all this ends in Peter being resurrected.

The one time hunters invading the Hale house would have been a good thing…

Question: Why is Peter naked? Have his clothes decomposed, or did Derek bury him this way? Even if he was naked when Derek killed him, why wouldn’t Derek put some clothes on him?

Fin.


End file.
